Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr is still polishing the rough edges of what is bound to be yet another high-octane lineup he'll roll out this season. One of his main concerns is cutting down some of the turnovers his team had last season.
The team led the league in assists for two consecutive seasons, dishing at the tune of 27.9 per game, totaling 2,288 assists in the regular season — but the Warriors also were ninth worst in turnovers per game, coughing it up a tad shy of 15 times a night.
Golden State had a 14.5 percent turnovers-per-possession ratio, tied 13th worst with the Portland Trail Blazers.
The addition of Kevin Durant should change the offense into a more efficient one, in the eyes of Kerr.
“He blends in pretty well with what we already do,” Kerr told Sam Amick of USA TODAY Sports. “As I said, we haven’t put in a lot of our offense, but he dominates play when he’s on the floor. He’s a dominant offensive player, which is a great thing. He’s a great playmaker. I think that’s what’s really intriguing about putting him with these guys, with Steph and Klay and Draymond, is you’ve got Andre, Shaun, you’ve got multiple playmakers.”
The turnovers Kerr (and every coach for that matter) is trying to avoid are unforced ones — whether it is the unnecessary fast break behind-the-back pass or the thread-the-needle pass between the eyes of the defense to lead to a layup.
Such passes have been a trademark of the Warriors offense for the past few years and part of the reason they sell out Oracle Arena every season — but again, it's hardly a switch one can turn on and off at will, it becomes engrained into the players.
“And if you move the ball, we should be able to cut down on turnovers as long as we don’t make it about the show and we make it about execution,” added Kerr. “We should be able to cut back on our turnovers this year, should be able to get better shots, to compete at a high level, but to execute at a high level too, which you have to do — in June especially.”
Durant's addition should make it more of a pick-your-poison offense when being aggressive in a half-court set, but cutting the turnovers will largely depend on the team's discipline when running the break and as Kerr said, not making it about the show, but about execution.